Definition

Environmental historian Michael E. Zimmerman defines "ecofascism" as "a totalitarian government that requires individuals to sacrifice their interests to the well-being and glory of the "land", understood as the splendid web of life, or the organic whole of nature, including peoples and their states".[1] Zimmerman argues that while no ecofascist government has so far existed, "important aspects of it can be found in German National Socialism, one of whose central slogans was "Blood and Soil".[1]

According to environmentalist David Orton, the term is pejorative in nature and has "social ecology roots, against the deep ecology movement and its supporters plus, more generally, the environmental movement. Thus, 'ecofascist' and 'ecofascism', are used not to enlighten but to smear."[4]

By topic or ideology

Bookchin's critique of deep ecology

"There are barely disguised racists, survivalists, macho Daniel Boones, and outright social reactionaries who use the word ecology to express their views, just as there are deeply concerned naturalists, communitarians, social radicals, and feminists who use the word ecology to express theirs.... It was out of this former kind of crude eco-brutalism that Hitler, in the name of 'population control,' with a racial orientation, fashioned theories of blood and soil that led to the transport of millions of people to murder camps like Auschwitz. The same eco-brutalism now reappears a half-century later among self-professed deep ecologists who believe that Third World peoples should be permitted to starve to death and that desperate Indian immigrants from Latin America should be excluded by the border cops from the United States lest they burden 'our' ecological resources."[6]

Nouvelle Droite movement

The influential European Nouvelle Droite movement, developed by Alain de Benoist and other individuals involved with the GRECE think tank, have also combined green politics with right-wing ideas, such as European ethnonationalism.[9]

By country or region

In Germany

Prior to attaining political power, several Nazi ideologues, such as Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Rosenberg, and Walther Darré linked ideas of Agrarianism and nature conservation with anti-semitic, racist and militaristic ideas.[1][10] Using the doctrine of "Blood and Soil", Nazi thinkers argued that the German people had a special bond with the natural world, which had to be protected both from industrial pollution and "inferior" ethnic groups.[1] These ideas remained in Nazism, despite its post-1936 emphasis on mechanical and military mobilisation.[1]

Timothy Snyder's Black Earth argues that Hitler's anti-Semitism viewed Jews as an "un-natural" plague that kept mankind from returning to its "natural" Darwinian state of fight among races for resources.[11]

In Finland

Although Finnish activist Pentti Linkola does not endorse fascism per se, he has expressed admiration for the German National Socialist regime for its efficiency in killing large numbers of human beings in a short period of time, describing the massacres of the Holocaust and Stalin's Great Purge as "massive thinning operations."[12] He advocates a strong, centralised ecological dictatorship, with harsh population control measures and brutal punishment of those he considers to be environmental abusers. Linkola has attracted considerable controversy both in his home country and worldwide.[citation needed]

In Greece

The Golden Dawn, a far-right political party in Greece that is described as neo-Nazi, has a branch known as the Green Wing. This organization takes part in volunteer activities such as firefighting, reforestation, and private investigation of animal abuse.[21][22]

References

↑"...the phenomenon one might call "actually existing ecofascism," that is, the preoccupation of authentically fascist movements with environmentalist concerns". Peter Staudenmeier, "Fascist Ecology: The 'Green Wing' of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents in Germany". In "Ecofascism: Lessons from the German experience," by Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier, 1995.

↑Olsen, Jonathan. [date missing]Nature and Nationalism: Right-Wing Ecology and the Politics of Identity. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

↑"A second trend was a Fascist and semi-Fascist tendency, probably most identified with Jorian Jenks..." John Vandermeer, The Ecology of Agroecosystems Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2011 ISBN 0763771538, (p. 165).